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Dayton faces deadline on Pawlenty executive orders

Gov. Mark Dayton must decide Monday whether he wants to extend any of the executive orders signed by his predecessor, Republican Tim Pawlenty.

New governors have 90 days to renew a predecessor's executive orders or they lapse.

Pawlenty signed 132 orders during his two terms, most of them dealing with disaster declarations and other routine matters. A few dealt with policy issues such as immigration.

In 2008, Pawlenty required state agencies to participate in E-Verify, a federal system used to verify immigration status of their workers. The order also applied to private vendors doing more than $50,000 worth of business with the state. Another executive order required closer collaboration between state law enforcement and federal immigration authorities.

Pawlenty also signed an order saying people civilly committed as sexually dangerous would not be released by the state unless it were court-ordered. The state has found itself in a potential legal bind with no one successfully completing treatment, and shouldering the growing costs of housing this population.

Katharine Tinucci in Gov. Dayton's office emailed MPR News last week. She wrote, "The governor is currently reviewing all of the executive orders from the previous administration; no decisions have been made yet." She said his office will release a statement Monday.

Within days of taking office in January, Dayton did reverse a Pawlenty order that had prevented the state from accepting grant money under the new federal health care law.